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Agence Havas news reports

Print Coll. 29

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held
at the University of Pennsylvania. Unless
otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our
reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

The international news agency Agence Havas, ancestor of Agence France-Presse (AFP) Reuters, was founded in 1832 by Charles-Louis
Havas (1783-1858), who translated reports from foreign papers and distributed them to Paris and provincial newspapers. This
collection consists of 101 lithographed news reports from 1845 to 1848, though most of the reports are from 1847. The reports
focus primarily on economic and political news of the time, specific to Spain, Italy, and France.

Biography/History

The international news agency Agence Havas, ancestor of Agence France-Presse (AFP) Reuters, was founded in 1832 by Charles-Louis
Havas (1783-1858), who translated reports from foreign papers and distributed them to Paris and provincial newspapers. Havas
spent the first decade of the 19th century as a trader and supplier of colonial materials (wheat, cotton, sugar and cocoa)
to the various Napoleonic armies, a profession that generated significant wealth for him. During this period Havas was also
exposed to news reporting for the first time.

By the 1920s, after a difficult stint as a banker and experiencing financial troubles, Havas returned to the reporting business.
Through the influence of a long-time mentor, Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard, Havas was hired to work for Ouvrard’s trading company
and headed a reporting operation focused on economic and financial news exclusively for Ouvrard’s benefit.

Eventually Havas launched himself fully into his own news translation service, first named the Bureau Havas and culminated
in the creation of Agence Havas in 1835. Havas also wrote for various French papers including the
Constitutionnel. The business grew through acquisition of other reporting agencies which provided Havas with a strong and broad network of
reporting infrastructure. Havas obtained the state’s support of his agency in providing news to state administrative offices
throughout the country. Havas began recruiting foreign reporters in Holland, Belgium, Germany and Great-Britain.

By 1840, Havas and his business partner Delaire, produced four news sheets: one of a political nature for the provincial administration,
one for the regional papers, one for elected officials summarizing the prior evening’s news, and lastly, one for bankers and
businessmen which listed stock prices as well as summaries and excerpts of other papers.

Havas’s significant network of papers and reporting earned him the reputation of heading a monopoly, a charge directly made
by Balzac in 1840. Growth of the business continued, and by 1845, Havas had correspondents as far as St. Petersburg. The strength
of his reputation enabled him to recruit some of the best reporters of his time, including Bernhard Wolff, the eventual founder
of the Berlin-based agency Wolff; and Paul Julius Reuter, founder of Reuters.

Havas was considered a pioneer in innovation in the rapid transmission of the news. Homing pigeons played a significant role
delivering stock quotes and war news updates daily from England and Belgium. Havas is believed to have had about 25,000 pigeons.
Havas' news was also transmitted through the telegraph and by trains and couriers from all over France to Paris and other
European countries. The year Havas retired is also the year he integrated the management of selling ad space into the management
of the paper itself; an idea that his two sons would build upon and convert into an advertising monopoly in less than a decade.

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of 101 lithographed news reports from 1845 to 1848, though most of the reports are from 1847. The
reports focus primarily on economic and political news of the time, specific to the country in question. Some additional information
about cultural and special events is also present, especially in the Paris news series.

The collection is composed of three series, News from Spain (October 24, 1846 to April 28, 1848), News from Italy (September
8, 1848 and August 23 1848) and Paris news (February 18, 1845 to March 5, 1848). The News from Spain and News from Italy series
are both uniquely focused on economic and political news of their respective countries. While some ancillary information about
other current events appears, it is minor. The Paris news series is broader. In addition to the political and financial reports
covering the capital as well as various French regions, there are transcripts of political speeches, short reports on foreign
countries (like Spain, Germany, England, Algeria and the United States), reporting of specific industries such as agriculture,
and reporting of cultural events such as exhibits at the Louvre.

Most of the collection covers 1847, a year of historical significance in and of itself, and leading up to the revolution of
1848. In France, there is coverage of the
Chambre des Pairs one of the chambers of government reinstated about twenty-five years after its abolition in 1789, but which was about to
be abolished again in 1848. Spain was also undergoing political turmoil at the time and the News from Spain reports provide
many mentions of the events related to the Spanish Carlist Wars.

Administrative Information

Publication Information

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, 2015 October 7

Finding Aid Author

Finding aid prepared by Clémence Scouten

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

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It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.